Forces of Nature (1999)

The story is about Ben Affleck who is about to get married. He only has to get to his wedding. Will he get there in time? Because the plane that will take him there crashes on the runway. Desperatedly seeking alternative ways of transport Affleck meets the ever charming and wild girl Sandra Bullock who becomes his travel companion. Will he cave in to the wild charms of Sandra Bullock during their trip to the wedding together or will he stay faithfull to his fiancee?Ideal date movie. But it deserves much more praise then just that. "Forces of Nature" is a roadmovie with lots of very sharp and funny dissonant comments about the downs of marriage. It has got a great dynamic, fast pace and many story twists that are enticing. Thanks to the colourful direction and the wonderful acting performances of Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck this movie really rises far above the average romantic comedy. In essence it is a ROADMOVIE with some budding romance, but for lack of a better label it could be called a romantic comedy as well, but one of the better ones. Really much better than the average crap.Really, if this movie wont set your date on fire, I dont know what movie will. Your girl will melt in your arms watching this. Your guy will definitely wanna confess his love for you after watching this. It is really an unique blend of a road movie and some great sparkling romance. This movie definitely has got a great lust for life!

I really don't know why such a good movie is having such a low rating it is one of the best Rom Com i have seen so far.First of all let's talk about how amazing is the chemistry between Ben and Sandra they were absolutely amazing through out the movie and the changes they are experiencing specially with Ben where you can see how he went from a shy protective guy to a totally open enthusiastic person.The directing is so fantastic specially at the ending.The story and the dialogue are so amazing and so realistic it is not like how people want it to end but it's more like what should really happen destroying all the myths about misfortune and pessimism.Such an amazing movie to watch even in 2017 please do your self a favor and enjoy such a good movie.

Take two Hollywood performers at their peak, place them in a romantic comedy loosely inspired by the riotous Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and watch the fireworks FAIL to ignite. Ben Affleck is a rigid businessman who finds his efforts to make it home to Savannah in time for his nuptials with Maura Tierney constantly confounded by the weather, mechanical failures, coincidence and the temptations provided by wacky free spirit Sandra Bullock, who keeps getting thrown together with him.Singularly Bullock and Affleck can be very entertaining, but together they do not have much spark between them. They come off more as a brother/sister pairing than potential romantics. Part of the problem is certainly the writing. Affleck's character is written as such a stick and Bullock is stuck playing such an offbeat stock character that the audience is never allowed to warm up to them. The less said about Tierney as Affleck's colorless fiancée, the better. Their misadventures grow tedious fairly quickly and events are not helped by Bronwen Hughes' uneven direction. Hughes either concludes scenes before they have built up a head of steam or allows them to drag on forever. For instance, the events at the hotel where Affleck and Bullock really start to bond and then run into acquaintances of his runs on and on and on. Meanwhile, a potentially hilarious sequence where, to earn money, Affleck reluctantly has to do a strip tease at a gay bar abruptly concludes right when it was starting to hit its comic high point. And these are only two examples. Hughes does not seem to understand what works and what does not. As such, we get a romance that is not particularly romantic, and a comedy with some scattered laughs that dry up long before the film has reached the two-thirds mark. I would venture to say there is not a smile to be had anywhere in the final third of this film.Another issue that fails is the ending. It probably sounds very mature on paper and it is certainly a non-Hollywood climax, but it is incredibly dull and renders the majority of the preceding scenes pointless. In a romantic comedy, one should never introduce a female character that is more colorful and appealing than the woman with whom the leading man ends up with (and vice versa). That is exactly what the writers have done here. They manipulate two characters together for romance and then in the final moments of the film, they have Affleck do an abrupt about-face and declare his undying love for Tierney, while a wise-beyond-her-years Bullock slinks off alone into the sunset. Affleck needs to sell us wholesale that the sight of Tierney alone has made him fall back in love with her (after a scant moment before he was planning on breaking off their engagement) and it is beyond both the actor and the screenplay to convince the audience of this. Rather than making it seem like Affleck is a great guy, it makes him seem more than a tad fickle. The next time he is stuck away from his beloved Tierney for a day or so, is he going to have another crisis of love? Does Tierney need to be in his line of sight in order for him to maintain the love affair with her? The entire scenario is just plain foolish. Affleck and Bullock have been much better elsewhere, and fans would be advised to find those other efforts.

I take on board all the criticisms cited here about this film and I accept that most of them are justified, but I have to say that I had an enjoyable hour watching it (missed the first 20 minutes... cooking my tea). Yes, it is clichéd, the plot has been done many times before, the script is often disjointed and has more holes than a Swiss cheese, the characters are left half painted, the actors are playing to type (though that never hurt Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, etc., etc) and elements of the story seem to be largely superfluous (the most egregious example being the climactic hurricane); but it is a romantic comedy... and I found it both romantic and gently funny in places. The weaknesses in the script and the editing can't be laid at the casts feet; and they perform really well. Sandra Bullock and Benn Affleck's romance isn't the most believable you'll come across, but they do work well together and have the chemistry needed to carry the heavily flawed plot. It also should be noted that very little in the story is believable; so much so that, at one point, Affleck and Bullock arrive at a bank where Ben Affleck is due to pick up some money that will enable them to get to Savannah, only to find the bank engulfed in flames. They turn to each other and laugh at the sheer improbability of it all; it's as if the characters are momentarily saying to the audience, "yeah! we know that you know that it's all so fantastical and contrived... so don't worry, it's meant to be". Lazy script writing or a foray into the realm of magical realism? The former I suspect, but the film obviously set out to have a fairy tale quality about it, and it has enough charm, wit and warmth to compensate for the holes in the script. Sadly many of the comical shoots do seem to inexplicably wither before they get a chance to bear fruit, but the comedy is without exception well-played by the cast. It just needed tighter scripting.I can't believe it has such a poor rating on IMDb - it has many faults, but I was contented to spend an hour-and-a-half watching Sandra Bullock looking lovely and being charming and witty on screen. Compared to so much of the exploitative, clichéd, adolescent, emotionally empty, fantasy violence out there that gets higher ratings, 'Forces of Nature' is Palm D'Or material... maybe it's rather naff title hasn't helped it...